Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware by M.T. Anderson

Buldene asked Lily and Jasper. “I looked it up in my
There and Back Again
, and the only vanlike thing they had was a cart that carries the god of traffic through the major intersections of the city at noon on Fridays to pray for no gridlock.”
    â€œThat is not the van in question,” said Jasper. “This is a different van.”
    â€œWe have our own private van situation,” said Katie from the railing.
    â€œWhere are you off to next?” Lisa Buldene asked. “You decided?”
    â€œVbngoom, the Platter of Heaven,” said Katie. Jasper hissed in warning.
    Lisa Buldene gasped. “Oh, break my heart! You’re not! You’re going to Vbngoom? I thought no one could find it! I haven’t even been able to find a postcard of it! My
There and Back Again
says it moves all the time.”
    â€œIt’s in the guidebook?” said Jasper.
    â€œYeah, sure. Everything’s in my
There and Back Again.
” She opened her bag, ducked her head inside, and reemerged with a guidebook. She handed it to Jasper, who began flipping through it.
    The New Yorker watched him, slouched in her seat. “Do you think you’ve seen the
real
Delaware yet?” she asked. “I mean, we all hear the stories—you know, the camels, the temples, the jewels, the snakes with women’s heads, the women with snakes’ heads, that whole thing—but I’m saying, sometimes I go to all the places it says to go in my
There and Back Again
, all the places where it says you can see the real,authentic Delaware, and then I get there, and there are just these fifteen other tourists standing there in the courtyard of that castle or that particular volcanic crater, looking around with their fingers stuck in their own copies of
There and Back Again.
” Lisa Buldene looked very tense. “Then I get really worried I’m not actually seeing the real Delaware at all, and that maybe there isn’t a real Delaware anymore, because it’s all just set up for tourists now. We can’t see it because we know too much what to expect from the
There and Back Again.
No place is real anymore.”
    Jasper read aloud, with interest—and then increasing disgust, “‘Vbngoom has been the most secret of the hidden mountain monasteries for centuries. Currently located on top of scenic Mount Tlmp, it offers great views, cheap meals, comfy lodging’—
comfy lodging?
—‘private bathrooms, and eternal life. When you’ve made it to Vbngoom, you know you’ve made it to someplace unique.’”
    â€œSee?” said Lisa Buldene. “That’s why I want to get to Vbngoom. Not because they have eternal life. But because I know it’s still real and untouched. Hardly any other tourists have been there. If I got there, I would know I was really living—you know,
living.
Myself.”
    â€œBut Vbngoom is in the guidebook too,” said Lily.
    Lisa Buldene wasn’t listening. “A
real
place is the thing everyone searches for,” she continued, her voice full of yearning. “You can’t know yourself until you go someplace unknown. And what if there’s no place unknown left?” She stood up, clearly unhappy. “I’m sorry, I’ve got to go,” she said, close to tears. “My
chakras
are twingeing.”
    â€œAre you okay?” asked Lily.
    Lisa Buldene picked up Katie’s bottle of Tyrant Splash from the little glass-topped table. “You going to drink the rest of this?” she asked Katie. “Because if you aren’t, I am.” She declared tearfully, “This is the only way I can really get the state of Delaware inside of me.” She drank a big gulp of the fizzy waters of the St. Jones.“Delaware!” she whispered. “You’re on my tongue now!” With that, she walked off.
    Jasper called after her, “Ma’am, your guidebook!” but she was gone.
    Soon after